British man dies in paraglider crash at Portuguese beauty spot
- The unnamed Briton was discovered late last night after going into cardiac arrest
- He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash in the countryside north of Lisbon
A British man has died in a paragliding accident in Portugal.
Emergency services, including firefighters, launched a search after a 999 call from a local resident who said a paraglider had crashed to the ground near a beauty spot north of Lisbon.
The victim of the accident is said to have already suffered a cardiac arrest when he was discovered in a ‘difficult to access’ area.
He was assisted by medical experts, but died on the spot.
It comes just days after former Scottish rugby international Greig Oliver was killed in a tragic paragliding accident in South Africa earlier this week.
A British man has died in a paragliding accident in Portugal
The unnamed man had his accident in an area known as Vale Bom in the municipality of Cadaval.
It is near the Montejunto Mountains, an hour north of Lisbon, a nature lover’s paradise, dotted with windmills and sleepy villages, which is also a renowned wine region.
The alarm was sounded just before 9 p.m. yesterday.
It was not immediately clear this morning whether the British man lived in Portugal or was on holiday.
An unconfirmed report said he practiced powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring, where the pilot carries a backpack motor that provides enough thrust for a paraglider to take off.
An investigation into the cause of the accident was underway this morning.
Paragliding is one of the activities listed under the ‘things to do’ on local travel websites, along with hiking, rock climbing and horseback riding.
Meanwhile, inquiries continue into the death of former Scottish rugby player Greig Oliver, who is believed to have drowned after crashing into choppy waters off Cape Town earlier this week following a collision with another paraglider.
Rescue swimmers and paramedics at Rocklands Beach, Cape Town, who recovered the body of former Scottish scrum half Greig Oliver, 58.
Munster rugby coach and former Scotland international Greig Oliver, 58, (pictured) has died following a paragliding crash
The 58-year-old, an elite performance officer at Ireland’s Munster rugby union club, was reportedly ‘struck against the rocks’ after being dragged from the sea following the bizarre mid-air collision.
Greig, in South Africa to support his son Jack and the Ireland squad at the Rugby U20 World Cup, was a passenger on a tandem flight overlooking the Cape Town coast.
Two tandem pilots collided in mid-air over Sea Point Promenade, a popular tourist area.
Oliver’s pilot deployed a backup parachute and landed safely in the sea, but Oliver was unable to recover from the crash and landed on rocks near the coast.
A former paraglider pilot, who declined to be named, said: ‘One of the two pilots had to detach his main and deploy his reserve, but unfortunately the tandem rider was killed.
“It is clear that he hit the rocks and went into the water and had a heavy part of the parachute and harness still attached to him that had to be released by rescue swimmers.
“He appeared dead and CPR was used by paramedics for some time, but he had already died and could not be saved.”